Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.